Supply chain management is one of the newest and most fashionable managerial concepts to be sponsored by those organisations responsible for setting the change agenda in the construction sector. Its success elsewhere, its promise of productivity improvement and 'best practice' pedigree form the basis of arguments for its adoption in the construction sector. There are a number of assumptions that underpin this argument that are largely ignored by the promoters of such change and the construction management research community. Most notably, the transferability and utility of supply chain management in the context of organisations competing in the construction sector. However, it is argued in this thesis that these arguments fail to engage with the recursive relationship between context and practice. Managerial practice does not exist in a vacuum. The research therefore sets out to test the theory of supply chain management in the construction sector. In doing so, the research approach is informed by and draws on contextual approaches that are highly sensitive to the recursive relationship between context and practice. A multiple case study research strategy was chosen that sought to provide explanations for how practitioners make sense of supply chain management in the context of their organisations and forms the basis of theory testing. These explanations also provided a wealth of empirical evidence to test the assumptions that underpin calls for change in the construction sector. It is concluded that supply chain management does not make sense in the construction sector and that calls for its adoption lacked intellectual rigour and were indeed acontextual.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2017-04-19T13:31:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 JULIANA FATIMA SERRAGLIO PASINI_.pdf: 2321629 bytes, checksum: 991ec935f9ab785e766e00af290db5aa (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-19T13:31:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JULIANA FATIMA SERRAGLIO PASINI_.pdf: 2321629 bytes, checksum: 991ec935f9ab785e766e00af290db5aa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-19 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O foco dessa pesquisa é o modo como as avaliações em larga escala repercutem no contexto da prática, tomando como espaço empírico cinco municípios de pequeno porte (com até 10 mil habitantes) do estado do Paraná. A abordagem teórico-metodológica considera que as políticas se desenvolvem em contextos de disputas contemplando arenas, lugares e grupos de interesses. Nessa tese o contexto de influência caracteriza-se pelo histórico da implementação das políticas de avaliação em âmbito federal e estadual e o contexto da prática, pela pesquisa com foco em ações desenvolvidas em âmbito escolar. A investigação teve como objetivo geral analisar a relação entre as políticas de avaliação em larga escala e as desenvolvidas em municípios de pequeno porte, a fim de identificar como repercutem no contexto da prática escolar, e, como objetivos específicos: (a) levantar os indicadores sociais e educacionais de cada município da pesquisa, no período de 2005 a 2013; (b) descrever as estratégias da gestão escolar e as implicações para o contexto da prática; (c) identificar as políticas educacionais desenvolvidas em âmbito municipal, a fim de promover melhorias no IDEB no período de 2005 a 2013; e (d) compreender como as políticas em nível federal e estadual repercutem nas políticas municipais. A coleta de dados desenvolveu-se com foco em ações desenvolvidas em âmbito escolar, mediante entrevistas (25) com diretores, coordenadores pedagógicos e professores, de escolas que participaram de, pelo menos, um dos ciclos da Prova Brasil, no período de 2005 a 2013. Utilizou-se o NVivo 11 para análise e organização do material obtido nas entrevistas. Como resultados, a pesquisa aponta fragilidades nas estatísticas quando apresentadas como fotografia da realidade educacional, o que acontece quando as redes e a sociedade tratam o IDEB como único ou principal instrumento para indicar a qualidade da educação, desconsiderando as especificidades de cada local e homogeneizando as características socioeconômicas, culturais e educacionais. Também revela que, mesmo em municípios de pequeno porte, a performatividade e o gerencialismo permeiam o contexto da prática, envolvendo ações relacionadas ao atendimento das especificidades das avaliações em larga escala. Entretanto, há resistência dos profissionais para que esses princípios não sejam determinantes da prática pedagógica escolar. Verifica-se grande preocupação com a aprendizagem dos alunos, desenvolvimento de projetos e atividades de contra turno, embora os resultados das avaliações em larga escala não sejam ignorados. / This research focuses on the way large-scale evaluations reverberate in the context of practice, taking as empirical space five small cities (with up to 10 thousand inhabitants) of the state of Paraná. Its theoretical-methodological approach considers that policies develop in contexts of dispute, contemplating arenas, places and groups of interest. In this thesis, the context of influence is characterized by the history of implementation of evaluation policies in federal and state spheres and by the context of practice; it focuses on actions developed in school settings. The main goal of this thesis was to analyze the relation between large-scale evaluation policies and the policies developed in small cities, in order to verify how they reverberate in the context of school practice; the specific objectives were: (a) to verify the social and educational indicators of each city in which the research was carried, in the period between 2005 and 2013; (b) to describe the school management strategies and its implications for the context of practice; (c) to identify the educational policies developed in municipal level, in order to promote improvements in IDEB in the period between 2005 and 2013; and (d) to understand how policies in federal and state levels reverberate in municipal policies. The collection of data focused in actions developed in school environments, by means of 25 interviews with directors, pedagogical coordinators and teachers from schools that participated in, at least, one of the cycles of Prova Brasil, in the period between 2005 and 2013. NVivo 11 was used to analyze and organize the material obtained during these interviews. As results, the research points the fragilities of the statistics when they are presented as a reflection of educational reality, which happens when educational networks and society take IDEB as the only or main tool for indicating education quality, disregarding the specificities of each place and homogenizing social and educational characteristics. It also shows that, even in small cities, performativity and managerialism permeate the context of practice, involving actions related to the meeting of large-scale evaluations' specificities. However, there is opposition from professionals so that these principles are not decisive in school pedagogical practice. Great concern with the learning of students is verified, as well as the development of projects and after-school activities, although the large-scale evaluation results are not ignored.

Management was once described as the art of getting things done through the efforts of oneself and other people (Follett, 1941) and is functionalised through acts of planning, organising, leading and controlling tasks and people for pre-defined objectives. These four cardinal pillars of management are translated into various models, tools and techniques of best practice of how to manage. While acknowledging that the substance of the current management models, tools and techniques have for years broadly contributed to how organisations are run, my research sheds more light on the shortcomings underlying some of the assumptions and ways of thinking behind these models and tools. My research findings based on my experience in working for the Department for International Development suggests that management practice and organisational change occur in the context of human power relationships in which people constrain and enable each other on the basis of human attributes such as identities, attitudes, values, perceptions, emotions, fears, expectations, motives and interests. I argue that these human attributes, human power relations and the totality of human emotions arise in the social, and understanding the ways in which these attributes shape local interaction and daily human relating is critical in making sense of the reality of organisational change and management. I suggest that management practice occurs in the context of everyday politics of human relating. It is that type of politics that takes place within families, groups of people, organisations, communities, and indeed throughout all units of society around the distribution of power, wealth, resources, thoughts and ideas. This way of thinking has enormous implications for the way we conceptualise management theory and practice. I am suggesting that managers do not solely determine, nor do employees freely choose their identities, attitudes, values, perceptions, emotions, fears, expectations and motives. These human dimensions arise from social relationships and personal experiences. As such, it is simply not for a manager to decide or force other employees on which of these human attributes to influence their behaviour. I am arguing that the social nature of management practice and role of human agents is inherently complex and cannot, in the scientific sense, be adequately reduced to discrete, systematic, complete and predictive models, tools and techniques without losing some meaning of what we do in management.